brickclubfandomcom-20200213-history
1.1.8-Sophia-sol
brick!club - 1.1.8 through 1.1.14 So hey, I kind of fell behind on brick!club! LET ME BEGIN THE PROCESS OF CATCHING UP. This doesn’t get me all the way caught up but at least I’m now closer than I was! Happily, while I was failing at brick!club my Fahnestock/McAfee brick arrived, so from now on that’s the translation I’m using (though I might still refer occasionally to the Hapgood because it’s SO CONVENIENT). 1.1.8 - After-Dinner Philosophy So first off I wish I knew more philosophers so I could understand the references, and there are too many for me to google and study up on them all. But moving beyond that, Myriel’s criticisms of this self-satisfied and selfish atheist are very true and I’m 100% behind them (his philosophies are “available to the rich alone”!) — but unfortunately I’m pretty sure (drawing on the Conventionist chapter as well, where the Conventionist is called atheist by the people of Digne but isn’t actually one) that Hugo’s of the opinion that atheists CAN’T be good people and that this is a typical picture of a typical atheist instead of just the kind of person who would find an excuse to be selfish NO MATTER their religious beliefs. Sigh. 1.1.9 - The Brother Portrayed By The Sister Yeah so I’m way more interested in the bits of the letter where we see hints of the relationship between Baptistine and her friend, and the friend’s family, and all that. Also Baptistine and Magloire’s renovation project! But no, Hugo thinks the important thing is Baptistine’s thoughts on her brother, as the chapter title and the narrative are both careful to inform the reader. The other thing I want to mention in this chapter is the “his death would be hers” thing. Because like that’s kind of creepy and/or sad? I don’t like the thought of someone being SO BOUND UP IN SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE THAT THEY CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT THEM! And yet that sort of thing is praised in the context of romantic love all the time! For the record I find it creepy there too. What a claustrophobic relationship! Anyways I feel best about Baptistine’s surety that she’ll die if I think about it in the context of the praise of that sort of thing in romantic love, because Hugo’s clearly praising it here, so I’m choosing to read this whole thing as “look, types of love other than romantic love can also be deep and hugely important and stuff!” Which is actually one of Hugo’s repeating themes so I feel at least somewhat justified in this choice of interpretation! (yes, I am well aware that I am bringing my own biases to the book. BUT DOESN’T EVERYONE TO ALL THE MEDIA THEY CONSUME?) 1.1.10 - The Bishop in the Presence of an Unfamiliar Light GOD I LOVE THIS CHAPTER. It is so good! For one, we get to see Myriel be the character cast in a more negative light than someone else for the first (only) time! In this chapter the conventionist is totally a spokesperson for Hugo, oh man. And I totally missed that the first time I read the book, because I hadn’t yet been introduced to Hugo’s later rhapsodizing on the subject of revolution. I mean: “Man has only one tyrant, Ignorance.” YEAH HELLO VOICE OF HUGO. But mostly I just love the whole discussion between Myriel and G—-. SO GOOD. (also I love that Myriel does not even attempt to defend himself against G—-’s inaccurate assumptions about how he spends his money, he lets G—- continue to assume and just says that it’s not actually relevant to their conversation and G—- agrees and they move on.) And then when G—- dies, the narrative says “there was liberty in his dying” and I’m just all I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE. In irrelevant-to-this-chapter thoughts, the pairing of sleep/death as two forms of slumber had me thinking of the pairing of orgasm/death as two forms of death (“le petit mort”, after all) and I remember seeing SOMEONE SOMEWHERE GAH WHY CAN’T I REMEMBER WHERE, IF THIS WAS YOU PLEASE TELL ME talking about the death/orgasm in the context of Enjolras’ death, because he experiences death at the hand of his mistress. I LOVE THAT. Also pretty irrelevant but I’m deeply curious: how has G—- been surviving? Subsistence agriculture, maybe? 1.1.11 - A Qualification I don’t really have much to say about this chapter. It was fine! It continued to advance our knowledge of Myriel! The end! (oh, one thing: at one point the narrative voice says “we who now speak” — come on, Hugo, you didn’t shy away from saying “I” in earlier chapters!) 1.1.12 - The Solitude of Monseigneur Bienvenu Again, not much to say! I liked this chapter though. And again my only comment is pretty irrelevant, and it is this: Vidocq (or the translator I read, Edwin Gile Rich) used the word “adroit” (and its opposite, “maladroit”) a LOT in his memoir. It gets used in this chapter and I discovered abruptly that since reading Vidocq’s memoir that word is now INDELIBLY ASSOCIATED WITH HIM to me. Whoops? 1.1.13 - What He Believed & 1.1.14 - What He Thought I feel like Hugo’s beginning to repeat himself a bit wrt Myriel? I mean I love Myriel and all and am happy to continue hanging out with him, but I don’t think these chapters are actually necessary? (yes this me saying again “I enjoyed but have no thoughts.” OH WELL it’s not like this post isn’t long enough already!)